Other Articles by Fariborz Ghadar

Fariborz Ghadar, director of the Center for Global Studies, writes about the need for the “Silicon Valley” effect to take place in the human genomics industry. Ghadar suggests that in order for the study of human DNA to advance to its full potential, an industry cluster must be created. “The genomics cluster will include multi-national corporations, research institutions, scientists, students, investors, related industries, and start-ups that haven’t been imagined yet,” Ghadar says. “And although the IT part of bio IT relies heavily on the Internet, geography will be a crucial factor: The genomics cluster will have a physical location. Studies show that having a high concentration of people working on similar problems in the same location speeds progress.”

Despite a wealth of natural gas, Iran’s options to diversify and make capital out of its hydrocarbon resources has been severely limited by political and structural constraints. Fariborz Ghadar assesses the country’s options for exploiting the world’s second largest reserve of natural gas and the role European customers might play.

In its continued stand off with Iran over uranium enrichment, the United States would like Gulf Co-operation Council countries to comply with extended, resource-related sanctions against the Islamic Republic. Ethan Chorin and Fariborz Ghadar assess the long-standing, key economic relationship between the cross-Gulf neighbours and the wider ramiﬁcations of ending it.

In the swiftly changing global economy, only nations, corporations and workers that remain flexible will survive — and those most willing to adapt will thrive. As population growth sputters in some countries and accelerates in others, and the average age of people worldwide advances, imperceptible change is taking place. This shift is similar to a tectonic force.

Dr. Ghadar, director of Penn State 's Center for Global Business Studies, told the conference that the most successful global companies achieve a reputation for providing value throughout the 'international product life cycle.' Shorter product life cycles and more expensive research and development now make these firms attractive strategic partners for emerging technology companies. In turn, the value leaders with marketing clout need to ally themselves with new-technology firms to avoid an otherwise inevitable slide into mature, commoditized markets with cutthroat competition and slim profit margins.

Fred is a good friend of mine. He works at a large multinational corporation. The name of the company is not really important but for argument’s sake, let’s say that Fred works for Eastman Kodak. In fact, I know a Fred at Kodak, but I also know a Fred at BASF and I know a Fred at AT&T. Some Freds and their companies do really well, other Freds and their companies don’t. So what makes one Fred and his company successful and another Fred and his company stuggle?

Technology can radically alter people's living standards around the globe, and it can solve or alleviate many of the problems we have created for ourselves. The business world should pay attention to three major areas of technological research that have the highest potential for changing the world.

As the "rent-a-crowds" of the clerical regime in Tehran wind down the celebrations of the 22nd anniversary of the Islamic Republic by chanting their customary "Death to America," US policymakers are grappling with a continuing problem: how to deal with Iran. Since radicals took over the US Embassy in November 1979, America's Iran policy has moved from hostility to appeasement to dual containment to apologizing to the hostage-takers for Washington's "past mistakes."

The Dubious Logic of Global Megamergers

Harvard Business Review, July-Aug, 2000

Across the Board,the almost universal belief among executives today is that bigger is better: companies are entering into huge, pricey cross-border mergers at an unprecedented rate. Common wisdom is that industries will become more concentrated as they become more global. In this article, FG debunks the myth of increased concentration; the perceived links between the globalization of an industry and the concentration of that industry are weak. Empirical research shows that global--or globalizing--industries have actually been marked by steady decreases in concentration since World War II. FG presents the biases that managers often have about consolidation and offer alternative strategies to pursuing the big M&A deal. There are better, more profitable ways of dealing with globalization than relentless expansion, they say. Those strategies include buying up cast-off assets from merging rivals; focusing more on domestic or regional growth rather than on global expansion; taking advantage of merging rivals' weakened market position during integration and launching an aggressive marketing campaign; and building alliances with other companies rather than buying them up.

To many people, globalization is an inexorable process in which cross-border competitors become more concentrated, increasingly produce where it is most cost effective to do so, standardize the product varieties on offer and are rewarded with sustained “globalization premia.” Global cross-industry datasets, the global auto industry and other case studies are used to probe these intuitions about industry dynamics, none of which seem to be supported broadly. And some of the mistakes that misconceptions about global industry dynamics may engender are reviewed.